More to the Fight

More to the fight

For me, there’s there parts to this fight.

Nationalism:

Wilder was an American Heavyweight Champion. That should mean something. It used to. 

Every other nation backs their fighter. When the Ricky Hatton fought Mayweather, the UK came in droves, banging drums and singing Christmas carols. When Pacquiao fights, the entire Philippines is behind him. When a Hispanic fights, the entire Hispanic population is behind him, and yet, when an American fighter is fighting, it is pretty common for Americans to be against the American fighter. It’s an odd phenomenon that doesn’t limit itself to sports (that’s a whole other series of posts).

Wilder vs Fury was an American heavyweight champion vs the UK lineal heavyweight champ, and yet, in my experience, most Americans were rooting against Wilder. And their reasoning doesn’t matter. no excuse is good enough. If 1938 Americans can set aside their racism (real racism, not the fake racism of the present day) and root for Joe Louis in his fight against Max Schmeling, people today have no excuse.

https://theundefeated.com/features/when-joe-louis-fought-schmeling-white-america-enthusiastically-rooted-for-a-black-man/

A boxing historian Thomas Hauser wrote in The Guardian, “[This] was the first time that many white Americans openly rooted for a black man against a white opponent. It was also the first time that many people heard a black man referred to simply as ‘the American.’ ”
As boxing historian Thomas Hauser wrote in The Guardian, “[This] was the first time that many white Americans openly rooted for a black man against a white opponent. It was also the first time that many people heard a black man referred to simply as ‘the American.’ ”Ralph Matthews, writing in the Baltimore Afro-American, put it this way: “Joe had the advantage, first, of being an American, and although he was a member of a minority American group, despised to a certain extent, yet when pitted against an out-and-out foreigner, he was still on the credit side of the emotional ledger. … The majority would rather see the championship remain in America, even through the efforts of a black boy, than see it carted across the ocean.”
The hypocrisy wasn’t lost on Louis. “White Americans,” he said years later, “even while some of them were lynching black people in the South, were depending on me to K.O. a German … the whole damned country was depending on me.”

People will get upset, and say “Louis vs Schmeling was a different time! Those were the NAZI’s!!!!” 

All of that is irrelevant. Country is important whether you believe it or not.

Race:

Whether you believe it or not, race has always been a factor in boxing. I think it’s due to the nature of the sport. Like Dana White said, “Fighting runs in our DNA.” It appeals to the part of us that we pretend we’ve evolved past. The part that, for better or worse, we suppress (too much) everyday. I won’t use primitive, because it’s too negative, so I’ll use archaic. Primal.

You know what else is archaic? Tribalism. Us vs them.

I don’t know how many people believe this, maybe it’s a vocal minority, maybe it’s not, I’m just going off of what I’ve heard, both online and offline, from black people that watch boxing:

“I feel like if Mayweather or Wilder loses, we all lose.”

I can’t dismiss this sentiment because I feel like this, even though I know it to be wrong. (Perhaps I’ve tapped into some consciousness that spans across the race).

I think it’s something that resonates across all black boxing fans. Some of us know it’s wrong and act accordingly, while some do the opposite. 

Even the fighters are aware of this.  It’s why Wilder’s was accompanied by Dsmoke during his ring walk, who ‘s song “Black Habits” contained lyrics like this:

Black magic, black excellenceBlack habits, this black medicine, everythingBlack Chucks, black tux, everything, everythingBlack hug, black love, everythingPraise black Jesus, play black MosesGive 'em flowers while they still here, black roses, everythingBlack tie, black ride, everything, everythingBlack pride, black lives, everything (Ah-ah-ah)

It’s very possible that people, who see race in everything, are just behaving as they always behave, but either way, it’s there. 

Maybe it’s just our sin nature to elevate people to such heights, that their loss in a sport counts as a loss for 13% of the American population. 

I never said it made sense. 

Boxing:

As a boxer, I applaud everything Fury did. He made the adjustments and they WORKED. Oh my goodness did they work. He had wilder backing up, and instead of ducking the nuclear right, he slid back to take the sting off of it. He took the fight to him, which is what he said he was going to do, and he did it. The boxer in my was impressed with Fury, however, I will say Wilder didn’t like right from the beginning. Something was off and it wouldn’t surprise me if we hear about an injury during camp.